SDCC 2017: Pre-Reg News

San Diego Comic-Con fandom has had about two and a half months of restful slumber, but we’ve begun to stir as the first bit of SDCC 2017 news as been announced. Wake up, folks! It’s time to plan!

According to the SDCC website, pre registration will occur in “early 2017.” For the past two years pre-reg has taken place in November with general registration taking place the following February. For 2014, however, pre-reg was in February and general registration was in March. For SDCC 2013 pre-reg took place just a month after the prior year’s convention (August 2012) concluded, with general registration happening in February. Prior to that pre-reg was done on site.

So basically things vary quite a bit from year to year and it’s hard to predict just how things will go for SDCC 2017. At the very least, we shouldn’t have to worry about anything going on sale until after the new year. But “early 2017” could be pretty much any time between January 1st and June. But of course it won’t be as late June. That’s just silly… right? Right guys?

Oh, and one more thing: it’s no longer called “pre-registration.” It’s now been dubbed “Returning Reregistration.” Us SDCC folk like to complain about changes to the system, but you know what? I kind of like this one. “Pre-registration” never adequately conveyed that it’s for returning attendees only. As a frequent contributor to the FoCC forums, this is often one of the biggest misunderstandings about the whole pre-reg process. It’s okay, guys. I’m sure they’ll be another SDCC change to complain about later. There’s always something.

In an act of perfect timing, Lenny from An Englishman in San Diego (friend of the Geekiary and all around awesome dude) just announced a new app for SDCC 2017 called MySDCC. The app still hasn’t reached the beta test phase, but it appears that it’s meant to be more of a supplement to the main SDCC app and include additional features such as self reported line estimates, a social “lounge” section, and an emphasis on off site events. While this is sort of a downtime for SDCC fandom, I’ve got to hand it to Lenny for the accidentally brilliant timing here. He announces an app and then SDCC just happens to make some pre-reg updates a few days later? Brilliant.

The SDCC fandom got a few months of relaxation, but things are already starting to rev up for SDCC 2017. We’ve got some pre-reg returning reregistration news and a new app! And now we sit and wait for the next minor announcement to pump us up for the next con. Just 288 days, guys. It’s almost here.

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. She earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. She’s contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. She’s written for Friends of Comic Con and is a 2019 Hugo Award winner for contributing fanfic on AO3. She identifies as queer.